The fine folks over at Sega Dreamcast Info Preservation Games released a rip of the unreleased US Dreamcast localization prototype of Shenmue II.
As described in their article, Microsoft didn’t, “Buy” the rights to have Shenmue II exclusively on Xbox, but was just simply ported once SEGA reached a partnership agreement. Shenmue II in the US simply didn’t get released because in SEGA’s eyes, it was pointless to do so with the Dreamcast being discontinued.
Luckily for Dreamcast Shenmue fans, Sega of Europe decided to take the risk, and release the game in Europe. Allowing EU fans to enjoy localized versions of the entire series up to that point.
The translation itself isn’t complete, so this is being classified as a, “Prototype”. The game is labeled as V0.991, and dated back to Sep 14, 2001. So far, the differences found are several UI elements not being translated, selection options are incorrectly labeled, the font used in the notebook is different, and a few texture differences that exist within this version.
The article also goes into the DEBUG menu within the game, and how to navigate it. Very useful for those who would love to search deeper into the differences of the game, and how it might have been if SEGA released Shenmue II in North America.
If you’d like to try out any of these builds, you can download either the GD-ROM rips, or the DEBUG rips from the Sega Dreamcast Info Preservation Games website. If you just want to play the games, download the RAW GD-ROM rips, and just place them into a folder on your ODE or favourite Dreamcast emulator.
Let us know if you’re able to try these out, and if you found any major differences yourself!
This is a dream come true for Dreamcast fans